


Ishimaru's not good enough...at sleeping

by Spiral47



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Dorks, Early Days, Fluff, M/M, Owada Mondo Swears, Pre-Relationship, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29098452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiral47/pseuds/Spiral47
Summary: Ishimaru's had a big week and Mondo finds him asleep at the desk.Well, that's okay.
Relationships: Ishimaru Kiyotaka & Oowada Mondo, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada Mondo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 79





	Ishimaru's not good enough...at sleeping

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick oneshot, from Mondo's perspective, where they're acquaintances/casual friends through tutoring, and starting to get to know each other more.  
> My first real fic.

It was 9:20pm. Huh, Ishimaru hadn’t come out of the room yet.

Mondo yawned and stretched in his beat-up recliner and picked up the remote to switch the tv off. He’d just come into the kitchen a while back to grab a hot chocolate and watch the headlines but he’d lost track of time. He’d settled in, lulled by the comforting drone of the news reporter. It had been nearly an hour.

But he hadn’t heard the telltale snapping shut of textbooks and various, almost robotic packing noises that usually started at 9 on the dot. Then the impossible-to-miss stomping of boots and a crisp farewell. “Thankyou for your work, I will be off now.” Or sometimes, occasionally, “Have a good night!” None of that today though. Wait, had Mondo conked out for a sec and Ishimaru was gone already? Nah he would have noticed, plus Ishimaru had yelled at him for nodding off on the recliner before, it would be no different this time.

The guy was almost always freakin’ yelling. Even more than Mondo. But Ishimaru yelled whenever he felt strongly. Anger, happiness, it didn’t matter. His volume was probably excessive even when tutoring. It was sort of grating. But it helped Mondo focus, on math of all subjects, so it wasn’t all bad. The sharp voice, and the laser-sharp red-eyed stare too. Besides, Mondo could tell that he was excited to help a fellow student out. What a nerd.

After tutoring, Ishimaru would usually spend some time finishing up some of his own work before heading home. Mondo didn’t know when it started happening. At first Ishimaru would spend the time trying to make Mondo study as well. Then the biker discovered that if he dipped into his garage workshop, then the younger boy wouldn’t follow him there. Perhaps he thought the woodworking was productive. Recently though, it seemed Ishimaru was happy to see the progress Mondo had made over the past couple of months with his schoolwork and had loosened up a bit.

“Thank God for that,” Mondo said under his breath, “but he still needs to fucking calm down.” But the hall monitor had improved. Or maybe Mondo had just gotten used to it.

Mondo rose, setting his mug aside. He padded through the corridor to his room. The door was slightly ajar so he pushed it open and stopped.

Ishimaru was sat in his chair – no he was slouched over, head on the desk. His left fist clenched a fluoro green highlighter in a death grip, and his head lay on his right arm. Eyes shut, his eyebrows were still knitted together, but not as hard, and he was breathing softly.

Ishimaru had fallen asleep? Mondo’s initial feeling was just to leave the room again. It almost felt wrong to see the prefect, his lines and edges, softened by sleep. The overhead light cast a glow over the boy's face.

“I-Ishimaru?” Mondo called out, feeling somewhat awkward. There wasn’t a response. Mondo decided against trying again.

In hindsight, Mondo shouldn’t have been surprised. Ishimaru hadn’t been retorting to Mondo’s complaining as much today, just sighing or giving him a look. He had also been more jittery and loud when he did speak, which Mondo guessed were the last dregs of energy the peppy teacher’s pet could muster.

The prefect had been on volunteering for the winter camp for the junior classes for the past three days, but he’d been back at school today and back into his usual pace immediately, and most likely bit off more than he could chew. Even though it was Friday and he could have taken it off. But the ultimate ‘moral compass’ hadn’t ever skipped, as far as Mondo knew.

Mondo stepped closer to the sleeping boy. He looked younger like this, even his hair seemed more calm now. He looked peaceful.

Which was…nice. It was uncommon.

In the short time that Mondo had started hanging around the boy it was clear that Ishimaru didn’t know how to relax. He always had to be studying, or furthering his academic ‘hobbies’, and even Mondo could tell that there was something deeply upsetting to Ishimaru when things broke into these plans. At first this had been irritating to Mondo. But he was starting to feel some respect at the way Ishimaru faced life.

Mondo grabbed at the highlighter in Ishimaru’s left hand, intending to pull it out. But the grip on it was surprisingly strong. A short laugh erupted from Mondo’s chest at this, and then Mondo clapped his hand over his mouth. Ishimaru stirred, ever so slightly, and murmured something, but stayed asleep. Wow, he really was knackered.

Mondo let his breath out slowly. A different tactic then.

He slowly, ever so slowly, put his hand on Ishimaru’s fist. He turned it over, and started uncurling the fingers. Yes, this worked. The hand was surprisingly warm. And soft. Nudging the highlighter out of the way, Mondo found himself with his palm touching the other’s for a moment.

Just comparing their hands, that was all. Were those nail marks on his palm? How hard was he clenching those fists?

He slowly aligned his hand so that it was resting exactly on top of Ishimaru’s hand.

Ishimaru had longer, thinner fingers, that ended in clean cut nails, probably too short. Inexplicably, he let his own thumb brush over the thumb of the sleeping boy.

Ishimaru made a noise again and Mondo suddenly felt – and then Ishimaru interlaced his hand with Mondo’s hand, squeezing it a little.

Mondo’s eyes widened, and he felt lightheaded for a second. Mondo stood frozen in place, not daring to move, waiting out this sudden panic, and then as soon as it had happened Ishimaru’s hand slackened and Mondo pulled his own hand away, which was shaking just a little.

He was relieved to escape the weird death grip that Ishimaru had. It was a relief. Really.

“Jeez.” Mondo mumbled, but he couldn’t muster up any annoyance. Instead he felt kinda guilty, for no reason.

Looking at Ishimaru again, he didn’t have it in him to disturb the kid any further.

Shaking his head to clear the murky feeling, he reached over to where Ishimaru’s phone was lying on the table. One message:

_I’ve left you some dinner on the stove. I’ll see you tomorrow._

_\- Father (phone 2)_

Ah, that’s right, he remembered Ishimaru telling him, that his dad was on night shift. Well that settled it. Ishimaru could sleep right here for the night, and then Mondo would wake him in the morning. The decision came quite easily to Mondo. He nearly left Ishimaru to it, but then he heard his mom yelling at him in his head.

So he returned to the living room to get some cushions that would fit on the desk, and rather carelessly chucked them onto the surface. He considered shoving the cushions under Ishimaru’s head, but settled for just leaving it beside his head. He honestly doubted that Ishimaru would wake up anytime soon. Then the gang leader decided to take back a cushion to the living room again. Now it wouldn’t be too crowded and he wouldn’t have to worry that the boy would wind up under em, not being able to breathe or something.

Uh. Was that it then? Mondo had spent some more time getting rid of the obvious trip hazards in his room and was now stood in the middle of the room. Why was he doing this again? He should get to bed himself.

Mondo beelined to his bed on the far end of the room and pulled out his phone. Glancing back at the intruder frequently. When he’d realized he’d been on the same post for the past twenty minutes, he gave up.

He turned the lamp off and went into a deep sleep.

\---

When he woke up in the morning, neither Ishimaru nor the cushions were anywhere to be seen. It was about twenty past six. Mondo frowned and picked up his phone.

4:12 am

_Hello Oowada, I am terribly sorry for falling asleep and inconveniencing you, I will endeavor to never make this mistake again. I have reached back home._

_\- Ishimaru_

4:14 am

_Thankyou for your efforts to make me comfortable. I will see you on Monday._

_\- Ishimaru_

Mondo found himself grinning down at the screen. Something about the formal apology for falling asleep tickled him. And the fact that he immediately went home at 4am. Mondo could imagine how shaken the boy would have gotten as he woke up, skittish like a racoon probably, beating himself up for letting his guard down for a sec. Mondo almost wished he’d been awake to see it, it would have been pretty funny.

Mondo lay his head back down and decided to sleep in a bit more. _Ishimaru is an idiot_ , Mondo thought as he dozed off. _And it’s kinda great_ _sometimes._

**Author's Note:**

> Ishimaru's probably worked past his limits often enough to have fallen asleep face-in-book or holding stationery, so this fic came about from that. Mondo is warming up to Ishi and enjoying having him around, but of course he doesn't admit this and hasn't really understood it yet.


End file.
